In this interview, Patrik Lidin from JustGamblers reflects on the status of sweepstakes casinos, sharing his perspective on the market and how JustGamblers approaches sweepstakes sites for testing, reviewing, and making recommendations. Sweepstakes Casinos Compared With Real Money Casinos Yeva: JustGamblers reviews a wide range of online gaming platforms available to US players, including real-money
In this interview, Patrik Lidin from JustGamblers reflects on the status of sweepstakes casinos, sharing his perspective on the market and how JustGamblers approaches sweepstakes sites for testing, reviewing, and making recommendations.
Sweepstakes Casinos Compared With Real Money Casinos
Yeva: JustGamblers reviews a wide range of online gaming platforms available to US players, including real-money casinos, sportsbooks, and sweepstakes casinos. Sweepstakes casinos can be confusing for players because they sit somewhere between social gaming and real-money-style casino play. Could you explain what sweepstakes casinos are and how they work in the US?
The confusion comes from the name itself and how these platforms are designed. They’re called “sweepstakes casinos,” and when you enter one, it looks identical to a real-money online casino. You’ll see the same interfaces, games, and promotional offers that resemble traditional casino bonuses. The key difference is that sweepstakes casinos use virtual currencies rather than US dollars and allow players to participate without spending money.
Operators use a dual-currency model. One currency, typically called Gold Coins (GC), is used for free-play, while the other, usually called Sweepstakes Coins (SC), is used for gameplay in which winnings can be redeemed for prizes, often including cash. Instead of depositing money directly, players purchase GC and receive SC as a promotional bonus. Redeeming SC for prizes is essentially the same as withdrawing winnings from a real-money online casino.
The model is based on US promotional sweepstakes law, where winners are chosen by chance and participation in contests must be possible without making a purchase. To meet this requirement, operators provide an Alternative Method of Entry (AMOE) that allows players to obtain SC for free, typically through registration rewards or by sending a letter to the operator. In traditional real-money casinos, bonuses exist but are tied to making a deposit or subject to wagering requirements.
It’s also worth mentioning “social casinos,” which are sites that are just for fun, no money involved. You can think of social casinos as the opposite of real-money casinos, and sweepstakes casinos between the two. Because of that, sweepstakes casinos are in a legal grey area. While they technically follow US sweepstakes law, the product resembles an online casino.
Yeva: In your experience, given the differences you highlighted, what is the overall player experience like at a sweepstakes casino? How does it compare to playing at a traditional real-money online casino?
If a sweepstakes casino genuinely follows the “No Purchase Necessary” rule, the value proposition can be very appealing. You can register, receive free SweepsCoins, play a game, potentially win, and redeem those winnings without spending a cent. From that perspective, there’s essentially no financial risk, only time spent, which is different from real-money casinos where you have to spend money.
The problem is that many sweepstakes operators introduce terms or mechanics that effectively require players to make a purchase before redeeming Sweeps Coins. Such practices add to the confusion and blur the lines between sweepstakes and real-money casinos.
The main issue, and a big difference, is the lack of regulatory oversight. If everything works smoothly, the experience is similar: you purchase credits (deposit), play games, and redeem winnings (withdraw) if you win. But if a problem arises, you don’t have much protection or legal recourse, since no regulator oversees these sites, and many are based outside the United States.
Accessibility is another difference. Sweepstakes casinos are available in most states, whereas regulated online casinos are available in only seven jurisdictions. Many sweepstakes platforms also allow participation from age 18 rather than 21. In states where legal online casinos already exist, this contrast raises obvious concerns about player protection, social responsibility, regulatory consistency, and competitive fairness, since sweepstakes casinos are not subject to the same licensing costs or tax obligations. In states where online casinos are illegal, it inevitably raises the question of why sweepstakes casinos are not treated the same way.
Reflections on the US iGaming Market From a Sweepstakes Perspective
Yeva: Given the differences you highlighted regarding regulatory oversight and the legal grey area surrounding sweepstakes casinos, what developments do you expect to see over the next 12 to 24 months?
In 2025, multiple states explicitly banned sweepstakes casinos. Others introduced bills to ban these platforms, and we can expect a resolution in the coming months. Looking ahead, this will continue. As a result, some operators will shut down entirely, while others will adapt by continuing to operate in states where the model is still allowed and shifting toward a purely social, free-to-play model in states where sweepstakes casinos are prohibited.
Even so, I expect sweepstakes casinos to remain operational in several states over the next 24 months, largely because policy processes tend to move slowly. The main exception would be if we saw some form of coordinated federal action that explicitly classifies sweepstakes casinos as illegal across the United States. Ultimately, my prediction is that sweepstakes casinos will eventually be banned in every state.
Simultaneously, advocacy from industry groups such as the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance (SGLA) will continue. I first wrote about a similar organization back in 2024, the Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA), which later merged into what is now the SGLA. In other words, advocacy groups have been around, primarily advocating for taxes and regulations instead of bans. Seeing how states are banning and not regulating, the question is how effective they are.
Most recently, the SGLA launched a campaign to rebrand “sweepstakes casinos” as “social plus,” to create greater distinction and a more credible image. The challenge, however, is that changing the terminology does not change how these platforms actually operate. At best, the SGLA can encourage the industry to adopt forms of self-regulation in the absence of legal oversight, for example, through stronger responsible gambling policies, KYC procedures, and fair-play standards. My observation, unfortunately, is that operators are more interested in making as much out of it as they can in the short term than in adopting a responsible approach to grow their brand over the long term.
Yeva: Given the lack of regulatory oversight you mentioned, responsible gaming becomes even more important. From a lawmaker’s perspective, problem gambling and player protection are among the most frequent topics when discussing online casino regulations. How do you view responsible gaming in relation to sweepstakes casinos? Are operators doing enough to protect players?
Some do. A handful of operators provide responsible gaming tools and services in line with regulated US online casinos. However, we again return to the issue of regulatory oversight; in the absence of it, it’s impossible to know whether the internal handling of problem gambling cases actually meets the same standards.
Most sweepstakes platforms promote what they call “responsible play” and offer tools such as spending and time limits, as well as the option to self-exclude. The problem is that these controls are often managed through customer support requests rather than directly through the platform. That means players may have to wait hours or even days for a limit or exclusion to take effect. For someone at risk, that delay can be critical. In my sweepstakes casino reviews, I often highlight that there is too much friction for players who need to limit or stop their play immediately.
In this area, I think the SGLA is having an impact through its advocacy for higher standards and greater responsibility. Particularly for new sweepstakes casinos launching, there appears to be a greater emphasis on responsible gaming, and many older operators have improved player safety over the past year.
Making Sweepstakes Casino Recommendations
Yeva: With the regulatory uncertainty around sweepstakes casinos in the US, how does that environment influence the way JustGamblers evaluates and reviews these platforms? At times, you appear quite critical of the sweepstakes model, so I’m curious how that perspective shapes the recommendations you ultimately make, and if there’s anything that separates JustGamblers from other affiliates?
We’ve discussed this internally at JustGamblers, and our view is that it’s our responsibility to be critical. If sweepstakes casinos or social plus gaming are to make a legitimate case for regulation rather than bans, they must improve operational standards and demonstrate that they constitute a viable option between social casinos and real-money online casinos. We highlight flaws, and in some cases, we’ve had operators who made changes after reading our review, reaching out to ask us to re-evaluate their sweepstakes casino based on the improvements they’ve made.
That perspective is reflected in how we review these platforms. Given how closely sweepstakes casinos resemble real-money casinos from a player’s perspective, we evaluate them using essentially the same standards. We don’t cut corners. A typical review involves at least 5 hours of hands-on testing over 2 to 3 weeks, covering all critical user journeys. We assess player safety measures, user feedback, game selection, banking and redemption processes, promotions, and customer support. We document findings and reflections, along with photos for context, and a video review summary, which we include in the published review and share off-site on our social media channels. In many cases, we expand the coverage with additional guides, such as detailed mail-in request tutorials with templates and video explanations.
Most affiliate sites produce very similar content. They follow the same structural template, essentially ticking the boxes for what search engines expect to see in a casino review, and then rely on domain authority and other aspects, rather than the quality of the content, effectively ranking for the wrong reasons from a user’s perspective. There are certainly some affiliates who put real effort into testing platforms, but at the moment, JustGamblers is the only affiliate producing this level of hands-on testing supported by extensive photo documentation and video coverage. You could say we are user-first, placing a strong emphasis on providing reliable information that reflects real experiences.
Yeva: Finally, when you personally review a new sweepstakes casino, what are the first things you check to decide whether the site is trustworthy and worth recommending to US players? I know players and affiliates tend to focus on welcome offers and free rewards, but there’s more to it, isn’t there?
Well, you pointed out earlier that I’m somewhat critical of the sweepstakes model, and that perspective is reflected in how we approach our reviews. In the absence of regulatory oversight, there’s a greater need for us to be critical and take responsibility for what we recommend. While many players and affiliates focus on obvious aspects like welcome offers or free rewards, we place far greater emphasis on factors such as responsible gaming tools, player safety, potentially unfair terms of service, wagering requirements, brand reputation, and the platform’s overall reliability.
We also evaluate promotions and bonuses, but those alone never determine whether a site is recommended. A platform might receive a strong overall score across several categories, yet still fail in a critical area. For example, if a site has a purchase requirement for redemptions, we note that this sweepstakes casino isn’t aligned with the sweepstakes model and that, unless the player plans to spend money, they shouldn’t play there. If player safety is inadequate, we don’t recommend the site, even if the brand managed to get a high overall ranking due to high ratings in other categories.
Lastly, I mentioned procedural standards earlier. Obviously, our judgments of the ranking criteria differ. If the criteria for a perfect rating in responsible gaming were the same for sweepstakes and real-money casinos, most sites would receive 1 out of 5 stars. In other words, criteria are necessarily adapted relative to the highest standards that can be expected in a sweepstakes casino. That’s why responsible gambling ratings for sweepstakes casinos tend to cluster around the mid-range, typically between 3.0 and 3.5 stars, with very few platforms reaching 4.5 or higher.
Company: JustGamblers
Interviewee: Patrik Lidin
Date: 20.03.2026